Fifteenth Amendment

Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee

Issues

Do Arizona’s voting policies that impact minorities and limit otherwise legal in-person and early voting violate Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act?

This case asks the Supreme Court to consider the scope of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (“VRA”), which provides relief against voting policies that result in discrimination against minority populations. The state of Arizona enacted two voting policies that limit the scope of both in-person and mail-in voting. Arizona’s laws allowed it to discard any ballots cast in the wrong precinct on Election Day and criminalized collecting ballots for mailing purposes. Petitioners Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich and the state of Arizona  (“Arizona”) argue that these policies are racially neutral and do not discriminate against Black, Hispanic, and Indigenous communities. Respondent Democratic National Committee (“DNC”) contends that these laws disproportionately impacted or—in the case of the prohibition on ballot collection—targeted minority communities, and therefore violated the VRA. The Supreme Court’s decision in this case will determine the extent of the protections granted by the VRA against discrimination as well as the validity of state laws seeking to address voter fraud.

Questions as Framed for the Court by the Parties

(1) Whether Arizona’s out-of-precinct policy, which does not count provisional ballots cast in person on Election Day outside of the voter’s designated precinct, violates Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act; and (2) whether Arizona’s ballot-collection law, which permits only certain persons (i.e., family and household members, caregivers, mail carriers and elections officials) to handle another person’s completed early ballot, violates Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act or the 15th Amendment.

The state of Arizona permits both in-person voting at designated voting centers or precincts, and “early voting,” in which voters can either mail in a ballot or drop off ballots at designated locations. Democratic Nat’l Comm. v.

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Merrill v. Milligan

Issues

Does Alabama’s 2021 congressional redistricting map violate Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act?

This case asks the Supreme Court to interpret Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (“VRA”), which prohibits discriminatory voting practices. Petitioner Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill claims Alabama’s recently redrawn congressional district map, which results in one majority-minority district, does not violate the VRA because it was drawn using race-neutral guidelines. Respondent Evan Milligan counters that the map violates the VRA because its effect is to concentrate Black voters into one district, undermining their voting power. This case has important ramifications for future redistricting efforts and for claims of vote dilution under the VRA.

Questions as Framed for the Court by the Parties

Whether the state of Alabama’s 2021 redistricting plan for its seven seats in the United States House of Representatives violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.

Alabama has seven seats in the United States House of Representatives. Milligan v. Merrill at 2–3. Following the 2020 census, in May of 2021, the Alabama Legislature and Committee on Reapportionment (the “Committee”) began redrawing its congressional districts, known as “redistricting,” to account for population changes since the last census.

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Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District Number One v. Mukasey

Issues

Is Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District Number One eligible as a "political subdivision" under §4(a) of the Voting Rights Act to bail out of §5's preclearance requirement?

Did Congress provide enough evidence of an existing pattern of discrimination in voting practices to justify the extension of §5 in the 2006 Amendments?

 

Congress passed the Voting Rights Act to enforce the dictates of the Fifteenth Amendment-that all Americans had the fundamental right to vote, regardless of "race, color, or previous condition of servitude." When the VRA was first enacted in 1965, the original intent was that §§ 4 and 5 would be temporary measures against particular states which would phase out after several years of remedial work. Congress, however, took a different route, and extended these "temporary" measures repeatedly, while broadening their scope to cover more states and political subdivisions. Several jurisdictions, like Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District Number One ("District"), are trying to exempt themselves from these requirements, arguing that these measures are anachronistic and too burdensome. After the District Court for the District of Columbia rejected the District's claim, the case is before the Supreme Court on appeal. Is it still necessary for the federal government to regulate state and local governments to prevent discriminatory voting practices? This case might serve as a vehicle for the Supreme Court to answer that question.

Questions as Framed for the Court by the Parties

Whether §4(a) of the Voting Rights Act, which permits "political subdivisions" of a State covered by §5's requirement that certain jurisdictions preclear changes affecting voting with the federal government to bail out of §5 coverage if they can establish a ten-year history of compliance with the VRA, must be available to any political subunit of a covered State when the Court's precedent requires "political subdivision" to be given its ordinary meaning throughout most of the VRA and no statutory text abrogates that interpretation with respect to §4(a).

Whether, under the Court's consistent jurisprudence requiring that remedial legislation be congruent and proportional to substantive constitutional guarantees, the 2006 enactment of the §5 preclearance requirement can be applied as a valid exercise of Congress's remedial powers under the Reconstruction Amendments when that enactment was founded on a congressional record demonstrating no evidence of a persisting pattern of attempts to evade court enforcement of voting rights guarantees in jurisdictions covered only on the basis of data 35 or more years old, or even when considered under a purportedly less stringent rational-basis standard.

In 1965, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act ("VRA") under § 2 of the Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The VRA prohibited state actors from imposing discriminatory practices that cut into the voting rights of citizens.

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Patrick McCrory and A. Grant Whitney, Jr. v. David Harris and Christine Bowers

Issues

Did North Carolina’s 2011 congressional redistricting plan improperly use race as the primary motivating factor in creating the first and twelfth voting districts? 

The Court must consider whether the proposed redistricting plans to North Carolina’s Congressional District 1 and Congressional District 12 constitute unconstitutional gerrymandering. Appellants Patrick McCrory, Governor of North Carolina, and A. Grant Whitney, Jr., Chairman of the North Carolina State Board of Elections, contend that the redistricting plans were not drawn based on race but rather were politically motivated. Appellees David Harris and Christine Bowser claim that direct and circumstantial evidence demonstrates that race was the predominant factor in the redrawing of district lines. The case is significant because it will address whether complying with the Voting Rights Act satisfies a compelling government interest and whether gerrymandering challengers must provide an alternative map when they present direct and circumstantial evidence of race-based redistricting. 

Questions as Framed for the Court by the Parties

In 2011, the North Carolina General Assembly drew a new congressional redistricting map to ensure that North Carolina’s congressional districts would comply with the one-person, one-vote requirement in the wake of the 2010 census. Shortly thereafter, several organizations brought suit in state court challenging two of those districts as unconstitutional racial gerrymanders. The state court rejected their claims in full, concluding that the General Assembly drew one district based on political, not racial, considerations, and that it drew the other in a manner narrowly tailored to achieve the State’s compelling interest in complying with the Voting Rights Act. Dissatisfied with that result, two members of one of the plaintiff organizations brought this suit challenging the same two districts on the same grounds. The parties even submitted the state court record in full.  Without even acknowledging the direct conflict with the state court case that its decision produced, the district court reached precisely the opposite conclusion.   

The question presented is: 

Whether the First and Twelfth Districts of North Carolina’s 2011 congressional redistricting plan are unconstitutional racial gerrymanders.

North Carolina voters have repeatedly challenged two North Carolina voting districts in a redistricting plan intended to comply with the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (“VRA”). The VRA aims to eliminate racial discrimination in voting by providing every voter with an equal opportunity to elect a candidate of his or her choice. See Harris v. McCrory, No. 1:13-cv-949, at 5 (M.D.N.C. Feb. 5, 2016).

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